Escape into Zany-land. Review on Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Movie

First of all, this movie is outrageously, unabashedly all about getting laughs, with a no holds-barred approach to decency, morality, and all those finer feelings. If you are finicky about constant drug use, contrived nudity and racial stereotyping, you better save your cash and stay away. For the rest of us non-politically correct types, this movie provides a fantastical “trip” with Harold (a wound-up Chinese-American) and Kumar (a degenerate Indian-American).

This is an over-the-top “road movie” fuelled by the antics of H&K, two pot-heads who encounter crazy situations, crazier characters, and usually find the craziest solutions. In fact, it’s their second celluloid adventure; a few years ago, “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” introduced us to the best friends on an incredible journey to a fast food franchise. That was 90-odd minutes of pot fuelled silliness, and the new movie faithfully continues the “tradition”.

In fact, if there’s one criticism I have of this movie, it’s that it sometimes tries to hard to follow its earlier footsteps; at times the jokes and situations seemed to mirror the earlier flick. That said, this movie has a whole different plot, and how!

Basically, H&K start off by being arrested on a flight to that mecca of hashish smokers, Amsterdam, when Kumar’s ‘bong’ is assumed to be a ‘bomb’. An extremely edgy, borderline racist Homeland Security officer immediately classifies them as terrorists and happily sends them to Guantanamo Bay. Luckily, our two friends escape almost immediately and the “story” begins.

Actually, the story is more or less a sequence of racist gags, juvenile jokes, drug use and nudity. There is also a thin secondary plot about Kumar and an ex-girlfriend, but it does serve to hold the story together. And, oh, the good guys win in the end.

Overall, I would say that this is a movie to be approached with absolutely no intellectual expectations, and that is the ONLY way to sit back, relax and take a trip into H&K’s crazy, wacky universe!